Category: Chevron Championship

Nelly Korda, seeking fifth straight victory, trails by one after play was suspended at LPGA’s Chevron Championship

“I’m going to think about it positively rather than negatively,” Korda said of the long Sunday ahead.

THE WOODLANDS, Texas – As if winning five consecutive starts – with the fifth at a major championship – weren’t challenging enough, Mother Nature had to get involved. For Nelly Korda to extend her streak, she’ll have to play 25 holes on Sunday and fend off several heavyweight contenders.

Play at the Chevron Championship was suspended at 2:57 p.m. CDT at the Club at Carlton Woods for dangerous conditions. With too many storm systems in the area, officials ultimately suspended play for the day after a half-inch of rain had fallen. Forecasters expect another inch to inch-and-a-half more of rainfall tonight. Round 3 will resume at 7 a.m. CDT, and once the third round is complete, players will be repaired by score for the final round.

The final round will begin at approximately 9:20 a.m. CDT off Nos. 1 and 10 with the final group off at 11:31 a.m. CDT.

When asked why players weren’t sent off both tees on Saturday, an LPGA official said Saturday’s storm system came in much earlier than forecasted.

Atthaya Thitikul (THA) lines up her putt on the second green during the third round of The Chevron Championship golf tournament. Mandatory Credit: Thomas Shea-USA TODAY Sports

Atthaya Thitikul holds a one-stroke lead at 11 under over a white-hot Brooke Henderson and Nelly Korda. Rookie Jin Hee Im, playing in her first LPGA major, sits two shots back at 9 under.

Henderson had already played 17 holes Saturday when play was suspended. Her 8-under performance included a stretch of 10 consecutive one-putts. She has one par 5 left to play.

The course record is 65 at Carlton Woods and the championship record, set at Mission Hills’ Dinah Shore Tournament Course, is 62, set by Lorena Ochoa (2006) and matched by Lydia Ko (2021).

“I think the last like month and a half, two months I’ve been working with my putter trying to get comfortable,” said Henderson, “just trying to be a little bit more confident. I’ve seen progress every week, which I think is really good, and earlier this week I was feeling really comfortable, just wasn’t really making anything, but today started to make some stuff, so hopefully this is a good sign for what the future will hold.”

Thitikul, who is making her 2024 LPGA debut after suffering a thumb injury, is through 12 holes while Korda and Im are through 11. The Thai player, a former world No. 1 who won the Vare Trophy last year for low scoring average, is one of the best players on tour without a major title. She’s definitely the most rested player this week.

“I think it’s not that big (of a) deal,” said Thitikful of a long Sunday. “I think last year in Malaysia I played more than this with the playoff, 27 holes, which is fine. Still fine. Still young now. Still good.”

Lydia Ko (NZL ) has an umbrella held by caddie Paul Cormack as they walk the ninth green during the third round of The Chevron Championship golf tournament. Mandatory Credit: Thomas Shea-USA TODAY Sports

Korda will sleep on the most pressure as she looks to become only the third player in tour history to win five consecutive starts, joining Nancy Lopez (1978) and Annika Sorenstam (2004-05). Sorenstam’s fifth win was at this same major championship. She triumphed by eight.

Korda killed time during the rain delay watching PGA Tour coverage. Earlier in the week, she talked about how exhausted she felt coming home after winning three consecutive titles in as many weeks. All three victories were in difficult weather conditions. She didn’t leave the house for two days.

“If you think about it positively,” she said of the marathon that awaits, “then I have a lot of opportunities left in the day that I can go out and maybe capitalize on a couple of them, then that’s good. But I’m going to think about it positively rather than negatively.”

Nelly Korda, boosted by an apple, trails by two at LPGA’s Chevron Championship after late birdie run

“Maybe I should have apples more often.”

THE WOODLANDS, Texas — If Nelly Korda goes on to win her fifth consecutive title this week at the Chevron Championship – joining Nancy Lopez and Annika Sorenstam as the only players to achieve the feat – she might look back on an apple, of all things, as a key to her success.

The World No. 1 admitted to nerves at the start of Thursday’s round, which saw defending champion Lilia Vu bow out with injury before she even made it to the first tee. Vu, who was in Korda’s group for the first two rounds, was replaced in the field by Jennifer Song.

Running on what she estimates to be a 70 percent battery, Korda hit a couple loose drives early on that added up to a bogey on the first hole and a shaky start. But an apple on No. 14 gave her the boost needed to notch her first birdie and settle into the day.

Five birdies later, including four on the last six holes, added up to a 4-under 68, the low round of a difficult afternoon wave.

Chevron: Photos

“Maybe I should have apples more often,” said Korda, who said she played “free golf” once she made the turn.

2024 Chevron Championship
Nelly Korda (USA) walks up to the 17th tee during the first round of The Chevron Championship golf tournament. Mandatory Credit: Thomas Shea-USA TODAY Sports

The 12-time winner sits two shots back of Lauren Coughlin, a 31-year-old American looking for her first title who’s riding a wave of confidence after a putter change and a switch to her husband on the bag.

Solheim Cup captain Stacy Lewis, a two-time major champion who grew up in The Woodlands and, like Coughlin, is staying at her parents’ house this week, finished up two groups ahead of Korda and said the wind really started to pick up as she was warming up on the range.

The morning wave posted 21 rounds under par compared to nine in the afternoon. The afternoon scoring average of 74.18 was 1.24 strokes higher than the first wave.

“I think anything under par this afternoon is a really good score,” said Lewis of the firmer conditions. “But it’s a major championship, that’s what it should be. Nothing Nelly does surprises me.”

Rookie Gabriela Ruffels carded the second-best round of the afternoon wave, a 69, on her 24th birthday. Ruffels’ parents, like Korda’s, are former tennis pros. Ruffels tied for third at the Fir Hills Se Ri Pak Championship last month to go along with two additional top-15 finishes.

While this marks Ruffels’ debut at the Club at Carlton Woods, she played in three Chevron Championships at Mission Hills and finished in the top 25 in each appearance.

Former No. 1 Lydia Ko, who needs only one more victory to enter the LPGA Hall of Fame, sits tied with Ruffels and three others at 3 under in a share of fifth. The Kiwi played in the morning wave.

Golf’s leading stats man, Justin Ray, noted that 37 of the last 40 LPGA major winners have been at or within four strokes of the lead after the first round.

Korda said at the start of the week, she was dead when she got back home from Las Vegas, where she won for a third straight week on tour at the T-Mobile Match Play in brutally tough conditions. Korda didn’t leave her house for two days, which was especially sweet given that older sister Jessica came to visit with her infant son Greyson. Aunt Nelly and Greyson enjoyed naps together.

A Whoop ambassador, Korda keeps track of her sleep and tries to get to bed by 9:30 p.m. or 10 p.m. no matter what or when she’s competing. Recovery, she said, is vital.

After winning her second start of the season in a playoff over Lydia Ko in her hometown of Bradenton, Florida, at the Drive On Championship, Korda took seven weeks off. A refreshed Korda returned to the tour in California and won her second title of the season in another playoff.  After capturing her third title in three weeks, she had barely unpacked her bags in Florida before it felt like it was time to hit the road for the season’s first major.

“I think those three weeks, I didn’t think that it was going to drain me as much as it did maybe mentally,” she said.

With three testing rounds left on her march toward history, caddie Jason McDede, known for saying the right thing at the right time, might want to throw a couple more apples in the bag.

Angel Yin withdraws from LPGA’s Chevron Championship with ankle injury

Hopefully Yin gets healthy soon.

THE WOODLANDS, Texas — Angel Yin withdrew from the Chevron Championship after carding a first-round 78. Yin, who was in a wheelchair earlier this season after breaking her left ankle in Austria, was in too much pain to carry on at the Club at Carlton Woods.

Defending champion Lilia Vu didn’t even make it to the first tee on Thursday before she had to withdraw with pain back. The two players who squared off in a playoff here last year were too banged up to give it another go.

Yin made her first start of the season two weeks at the T-Mobile Match Play in Las Vegas where she took a share of fifth.

Yin told Golfweek on the eve of the championship that she felt a great deal of pain walking the fairways of Jack Nicklaus Signature Course and during the follow-through of her swing. Cross-country flights seemed to make things worse.

Chevron: Lauren Coughlin gave her husband a three-week trail as caddie, and she now leads LPGA’s Chevron

While Yin wouldn’t reveal the details of what she was doing during the time of the “avoidable accident,” she did say that she made a mistake by taking off her air cast every night for two weeks in Austria.

“That was wrong,” she said. “My doctor was not too happy.”

With the Olympics on the line, Yin was pleased to be back in action in time for the first major of the year. A little nervous, too.

Unfortunately, it didn’t last.

Lauren Coughlin gave her husband a three-week trial as caddie, and she now leads LPGA’s Chevron

Odds of Pond keeping his new job though, so far, look pretty good.

THE WOODLANDS, Texas — John Pond had just quit his job in fundraising at the University of Virginia to come travel with his wife, Lauren Coughlin, full-time on the LPGA when a new opportunity presented itself. Coughlin split with her longtime caddie after the spring Asian swing, and Pond begged her to give him the job.

Coughlin said she’d give him three weeks.

“I’ll know after three weeks if we can do it,” said Coughlin. “When I say we, I mean me.”

The Chevron Championship marks their fourth week together, and Coughlin holds the clubhouse lead at the year’s first major after an opening 6-under 66. She tied for eighth in their first week together and took a share of 32nd the following week in Las Vegas. Last week, the couple attended the Masters together for the first time.

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Coughlin and Pond first met at a football Christmas party at the University of Virginia where they lived in the same dorm. Pond, a “mediocre center” on the football team, said his roommate at the time took her on one date, and they later bonded over the fact that she had a car.

“At UVA, you can’t have a car first year and the big boys need to eat,” said Pond with a smile. “So I took full advantage of that, and then that turned into a relationship.”

Chevron: Photos

He proposed at the 2016 ACC Championship after the Cavaliers won the team title, and Coughlin captured her first individual win. Coughlin’s coach gave the mic to Pond during the trophy presentation, and he got down on one knee to pop the question.

For most of their married life, they’ve gone weeks at a time without seeing each other. Pond said they’re probably still in the honeymoon phase even though they’ve been married for six years.

Pond’s decision to leave his job to start taking on a more managerial role – now as caddie – means that they’re going all in on Coughlin’s career.

“I don’t think we’re oblivious to the fact that she’s 31 years old,” said Pond. “Everybody that’s been around her and been with her knows what she’s capable of. I think it would be selfish of me not to give her every opportunity.

Of course, that means that the family’s financial success for now, at least, rests on Coughlin, who has made $126,980 this season inside the ropes before expenses. Pond tells his wife all the time that whether she wins 10 times or never at all or barely keeps her card, his greatest desire is that she leaves the tour with no regrets.

“If you don’t give it everything you have,” he told her, “one day you’ll be sitting there telling people what you could’ve been, not what you were.”

Coughlin, currently 94th in the Rolex Rankings, liked the idea of traveling the world together while they still can. And, after Pond supported them with a steady paycheck early on in the marriage, they’re now in a place where one income won’t put a strain on the budget. Their first globetrotting trip together after Pond left his job included stops in Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Singapore and China.

“He was always like worst case, if after a year we don’t like it,” said Coughlin, “I can go back and get a job again.”

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Because they’ve spent so much time apart, Pond didn’t want to do a 180-degree turn and have them spend every waking hour together. He sets up his day the way any other caddie would, getting up around 6 a.m. to go walk nine holes, and then meets Coughlin at the course when she’s ready. This week they’re staying close to the course at Couglin’s parents’ house in The Woodlands, but when they’re away from family on the road they’ll get two rental cars. They typically don’t spend too much time together early week, he said.

When Coughlin finished practice early on Wednesday, for example, Pond went to the store for three hours to give her space to watch “crappy TV shows” if she wanted.

When they are together, Coughlin doesn’t want their conversations to be all about her golf.

“Which, of course, I enjoy that he cares that much,” she said, “but it’s just like, I don’t always love it always being about me and my golf game, specifically.”

Last month during the Ford Championship in Arizona, as Pond, whose handicap is a “dangerous 12,” got fitted by Ping, Coughlin was puttering around a stumbled upon a new putter.

While Coughlin’s ball-striking remains strong, it’s the improvement in short game over the past two years that has really made a difference. A couple of the par saves she made on the front nine Thursday wouldn’t have happened earlier in her LPGA career, Pond said.

Coughlin’s parents moved to The Woodlands a dozen years ago the day after she moved into her UVA dorm. When she’s in town, Coughlin typically practices at the nearby Woodlands Country Club.

She’s happy to be sleeping in her own bed this week. Dad cooked her breakfast Thursday morning, and they had a bunch of friends over for dinner on Tuesday.

“It’s been a lot of fun,” said Coughlin, “and relaxing for sure, not having to be in host housing or hotel, have a real true home feel to it.”

Coughlin might not be a household name, but she’s got a built-in fanbase with No Laying Up. She’s been part of their Young Hitters program since 2019 and has the NLU logo on the bag.

There’s a financial component to the sponsorship, of course, but it’s the intangibles that have meant the most to Coughlin. She said a few years back that anytime she hangs out with the NLU crew, she comes back loving golf even more.

It’s still early in this championship, but Coughlin has never placed better than a share of 15th at a major, which came last year at the KPMG Women’s PGA. She’s had four top-10 finishes on the LPGA since 2022, her best coming at the CPKC Women’s Open where she tied for sixth. She debuted at the Chevron last year and missed the cut.

“It’s only one round,” said Coughlin when asked about the pressure of leading a major.

Odds of Pond keeping his new job though, so far, look pretty good.

Defending champion Lilia Vu withdraws from 2024 Chevron Championship with injury

Lilia Vu’s title defense of the Chevron Championship was over before it began.

THE WOODLANDS, Texas — Lilia Vu’s title defense of the Chevron Championship was over before it began. The world No. 2 had a nagging back injury flare up during warm-ups at the Club at Carlton Woods and withdrew from the event before her 1:10 p.m. CDT tee time, according to an LPGA official. Vu is expected to release a statement later in the afternoon.

Earlier this season, Vu withdrew from two events during the Asian swing. The former UCLA standout said during a pre-tournament press conference on Tuesday at the Chevron that she was 95 percent recovered.

Apparently things turned for the worse quickly.

“It’s been a rough couple months battling with my injury,” Vu said on Tuesday. “It’s been a little scary. I’ve definitely cried a lot on the range sometimes because my back just couldn’t hold up.”

Chevron: Photos

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In a statement posted on social media, Vu stated “I have been dealing with a back injury for a while now. Some days are better than others, and today was unfortunately not a good day. During my normal warm-up routine, I had severe discomfort in my back and I felt that I could not compete up to my standards and made the decision to withdraw from the tournament before my tee time.”

Vu won four times on the LPGA last season, including two major championships, and was the tour’s Player of the Year.

She was asked earlier in the week what she thought about during the time she spent in the scoring area last year at The Club of Carlton Woods, waiting to see about a playoff.

“I think it was cold, and I was a little worried about my back,” she recalled. “It was actually really clutch last year. My physio was actually out of here on her way to Dallas, and I think after 30 minutes on her drive there she turned around and came back and had enough time to help me on the range and get ready for the playoff.”

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Photos: Chevron Championship 2024 at The Club at Carlton Woods

Here are the best photos from the Chevron.

It’s time for the first women’s major championship of the year.

The 2024 Chevron Championship began Thursday at The Club at Carlton Woods in The Woodlands, Texas, just outside of Houston. Lilia Vu is the defending champion of the event, her first of two major wins last year.

However, the favorite coming in is Nelly Korda, the No. 1 golfer in the world who has won four consecutive LPGA starts heading into the week. However, with all of the best female golfers in the world in the field, it’s going to be a challenge to win her fifth straight.

Here’s a look at the best photos from the 2024 Chevron Championship:

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